Youth Action for a Sustainable Future
A healthy environment is essential to thriving communities, resilient ecosystems, and sustainable economies. Yet around the world, our natural systems are facing growing pressures from climate change, pollution, biodiversity loss, and the unsustainable use of resources. Addressing these interconnected challenges requires innovative solutions, collective action, and the meaningful engagement of young people in building a more sustainable and climate-resilient future.
The Youth Champion in Environmental Awareness Award recognizes young leaders in Ontario who are taking meaningful action to address environmental awareness. Through innovation, advocacy, research, conservation, and community engagement, youth are helping shape a more sustainable future.
At its core, this award celebrates young people who are not only raising awareness, but also creating practical, measurable, and solution-oriented change.
Recognizing Inspiring Young Leaders
This award recognizes inspiring young leaders, aged 15-24, who have shown exceptional dedication to advancing climate, water and environmental issues through activism, research, or community engagement. The recipients should embody innovation, resilience, and the ability to mobilize others. Their work may include leading grassroots campaigns, organizing clean-ups or awareness initiatives, developing innovative solutions for water and climate challenges, advocating for stronger environmental policies, or using creative platforms to engage communities. Nominees may be involved in initiatives related to environmental conservation, climate action, biodiversity protection, sustainable water resource management, clean energy, research, education, advocacy, environmental policy, or community-based solutions that promote a more sustainable and resilient future.
The award is open to nominees from Ontario, Canada, and recognizes the important role young people play in protecting water resources and inspiring, responsible action for future generations.
 Professor Kaveh Madani Director, United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health We are living through a moment the world has never faced before. Earlier this year, UNU-INWEH declared that the planet has entered an era of Global Water Bankruptcy — a state in which many of the river basins, aquifers, and watersheds we depend on have been drawn down so far, for so long, that they can no longer recover their historical balance. This is not water scarcity. It is not even water crisis. It is a systemic failure decades in the making, and its costs are not shared equally: they fall hardest on smallholder farmers, Indigenous communities, low-income households, and — disproportionately — on young people who will inherit the consequences of choices they did not make. That is precisely why this award exists. Water security cannot be rebuilt by better infrastructure or policy alone. It requires a generation willing to question the assumptions that got us here, and bold enough to act before the data forces our hand. Around the world, I have watched young people turn hydrological warnings into movements — through advocacy, science, art, and community organizing — faster than most institutions manage to turn them into policy. The Youth Award in Environmental Action and Awareness exists to recognize that leadership and give it a larger stage. If you are applying, know that your work on environmental action and awareness is not a side issue — it is central to whether the next decades are defined by continued depletion or by genuine repair. We are counting on you. Not someday. Now. |
 Dr. Rohit Ramchandani Innovation and Strategic Partnerships Officer, United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health Leading this awards process has been one of the genuine privileges of my work here. Over the past several years, my colleagues and I have written — in The Lancet Global Health, The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, and in a report commissioned by the World Health Organization — about what it actually takes to engage young people meaningfully: not as symbols, but as partners with space, voice, audience, and influence. This award is that argument put into practice. Last year's four recipients — Aimée Tai, Jenna Elshurafa, Matthew Tyhurst, and Julia Baribeau — showed us exactly why the investment matters. Each has continued building on the work that earned them recognition: carrying forward research, engineering, advocacy, and community organizing that started long before the award and hasn't slowed since. That's the point of a program like this. It isn't a single evening of recognition; it's a vote of confidence in a trajectory already in motion, and a commitment to keep backing it. None of this happens without partnership. I want to thank the International Peace Festival, whose Youth Day platform gave this award its first stage and continues to connect it to a broader vision of peace as something we build through inclusion, not just declare in its absence. And thank you to Waterfront Media, whose support has helped us tell these young leaders' stories to audiences far beyond the room. As we open this year's award with a focus on youth and water security, I'm reminded of a line I keep coming back to in our published work: youth engagement is a two-way street. Young people are already showing up. The question this award keeps asking — of us, and of every institution watching — is whether we're prepared to show up in return. |
Nomination Deadline
Nominations are now open for 2026.
Deadline: 27 August 2026
Aims and Goals
The Youth Environmental Leadership Award aims to:
- Recognize youth leadership in addressing environmental and climate challenges.
- Elevate environmental sustainability and climate resilience as public and intergenerational priorities.
- Encourage practical solutions that promote sustainable resource management and environmental stewardship.
- Support youth-led innovation, advocacy, research, and community action.
- Inspire more young people to become active contributors to a more sustainable and climate-resilient future.
- Highlight scalable initiatives that help protect communities, ecosystems, and the natural environment.
By celebrating youth action, the award helps shift the conversation from awareness to meaningful engagement and long-term solutions.
Award Recognition
The recipients will be announced and recognized at an event to be hosted in Toronto, Ontario in September 2026.
Eligibility
The award is open to nominees who:
- Are between the ages of 15 and 24
- Live in Ontario, Canada
- Have demonstrated leadership in addressing climate, water and environmental challenges
- Have contributed to practical, measurable, or community-based solutions
- Show a strong commitment to sustainability and long-term water security
Eligible contributions may include:
- Environmental conservation and climate action initiatives
- Improving the sustainable use of natural resources in communities, schools, or industries
- Protecting ecosystems, biodiversity, forests, wetlands, and other natural environments
- Research related to climate change, environmental sustainability, renewable energy, or ecological resilience
- Advocacy, education, or public awareness campaigns that promote environmental stewardship and climate action
- Community engagement projects that encourage sustainable practices and environmental responsibility
- Innovative tools, technologies, programs, or solutions that address climate, water or environmental challenges
- Projects that have amplified diverse perspectives, created opportunities for peer participation, or influenced decision-making to advance environmental sustainability and climate resilience.
Nomination Criteria
Nominees will be considered based on the following criteria:
- Leadership
Demonstrated ability to inspire, organize, or influence others toward water sustainability.
- Innovation
Creative approaches, ideas, or solutions that address water security.
- Measurable Impact
Clear evidence of positive outcomes, community benefit, or meaningful progress.
- Commitment
Long-term commitment to addressing water security challenges.
How to Nominate
Please submit nominations by completing the following form: Nomination Form
Who can Nominate
Nominations are open to anyone who is familiar with the nominee’s work, achievements, or contributions in the water sector. This includes, but is not limited to:
- Teachers, professors, or academic advisors
- Employers, supervisors, or colleagues
- Mentors or program coordinators
- Community leaders or representatives of partner organizations
- Peers who have worked directly with the nominee
Nominators must have direct knowledge of the nominee’s work and be able to speak credibly to its impact, quality, and relevance to water-related issues.
Self-nominations are not permitted. Nominees may not submit a nomination on their own behalf.
Contact
For further Comments or questions, you may contact: awards@unu.edu
Help us recognize Ontario’s next generation of environmental leaders. Submit your nomination today and celebrate youth action for a better tomorrow.
Past Youth Champions in Environmental Action & Awareness
 | Julia Baribeau (24, Kitchener–Waterloo, ON) Applied Solutions Advisor, Enviro-Stewards | BASc in Mechatronics Engineering, University of Waterloo |
 | Jenna Elshurafa (21, Toronto, ON) Youth Fellow in Diplomacy and Sustainable Development, UNU-INWEH | Economics Student, University of Toronto Her involvement in the first plastic-free pilates studio in Dubai is an example of Jenna's impactful work. |
 | Aimée Tai (21, Richmond Hill, ON) Founder, Neighbours for the Planet | Materials Science & Engineering Student, University of Toronto Aimée Tai co-developed a rainwater harvesting and filtration system in the Philippines designed to combat water scarcity through low-cost, community-led maintenance. Locally, as the founder of Neighbours for the Planet, she fosters collective climate action through education and engagement. Her research optimizing desalination membrane synthesis using Bayesian methods showcased how innovation and environmental stewardship can work hand-in-hand. |
 | Matthew Tyhurst (18, Halton Hills, ON) Climate Motivator, United Church of Canada | Political Science & Legal Studies Student, University of Waterloo A youth leader with the United Church of Canada and a public speaker on climate and democracy, Matthew Tyhurst has influenced local policy, including stopping a proposed gas plant expansion through youth-led mobilization. As a Vote16 Canada advocate, he promotes lowering the federal voting age and developed a municipal politics education program during a co-op with the Town of Halton Hills. He also served as Secondary Co-Chair of the Halton District School Board’s Environmental & Global Leadership Committee. |
